I couldn’t agree more. My week in the Caribbean was just what the doctor ordered for the winter blues and these new shades in the Essie Resort 2014 collection conjure up thoughts of sea, sand, fruity drinks and moonlit walks.

Formula & Application

Essie is a 3-Free brand. The square bottles are embossed with the Essie logo and the smooth plastic caps include an embossed ‘e’ on top. Bottles at mass retailers have stickers rather than embossing on the bottle. The brushes are thin, round and shorter than most. The bristles are very flexible, allowing you to easily fan out the brush to cover your nail width.

The Essie formula has a squishy, watery texture that glides on the nail allowing for precise application. One of the major benefits of the Essie consistency, and a reason I’m a fan, is that, for the most part, it self levels. So even when you think you jacked up a nail with uneven application, give it a minute and the polish will settle out.

In this collection all the shades, except Under The Twilight, require three coats for full opacity. Find Me An Oasis is rather streaky and somewhat chalky so it’s a bit of a challenge to apply. Resort Fling, on the other hand, with its jelly-esque texture, is a dream to apply, though a bit sheer. Cocktails & Coconuts and Under The Twilight both have a nice, even flow.

Essie Cocktails & Coconuts is a yellow-based tan with a subtle crystal-fleck glitter that has become a signature style for Essie. It adds just enough sparkle to catch the eye. In spite of the onslaught of new nudes/tans, I have nothing that quite matches C&C.

Essie Cocktails & Coconuts

Essie Find Me An Oasis is probably the palest baby blue creme I have encountered. It’s like a whisper of blue pigment was added to white. In fact, colors like Essie Borrowed & Blue and Zoya Blu seem dark in comparison.

Essie Find Me An Oasis

Essie Resort Fling is a jelly-based coral creme. It leans more towards peach than pink but is pretty much my ideal coral. Before I realized it was a jelly, I expected it to be some bright, bright coral creme but the jelly base softens it to more of a ripe melon.

Essie Resort Fling

Essie Under The Twilight is a deep, greyed aubergine. It’s cool with a lot of depth yet light enough to avoid the dreaded “almost black” territory. Its smokiness is what sets it apart from other shades like Zoya Pinta (too vivid and blue) or Essie Luxedo (too vampy and red).

Essie Under The Twilight

Essie Resort 2014

Bottom Line: I’m a sucker for a good coral and Resort Fling is just that. I love the ease of jelly-based cremes and this one is a joy to work with. Definitely my must-have of the bunch. Find Me An Oasis is a breath of wintry fresh air though its formula issues cost it major points in my book. Cocktails & Coconuts has a finish I love but it’s more flattering on warm skin tones. Under The Twilight is pretty and relatively unique, just not gasp worthy.

Essie Resort 2014 is available now at salons and mass retailers nationwide and online at Beauty.com, Nordstrom.com, and ULTA.com. Essie nail polish retails for $8.50 for a .5oz bottle.

Thoughts on the new Essie Resort shades? Which ones do you plan to pick up? Do you tend to take vacations in the winter or summer?

Disclosure: Product samples were provided by reps for Essie. Affiliate links appear in this post. When you purchase through an affiliate link, you help support this site. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.

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Find Me an Oasis is definitely intriguing since I’ve been getting more into blues for nails lately, but the formula issues will mean that I probably won’t be adding it to my stash. Under the Twilight, though, is something that I’d like to pick up.

Since a lot of people are asking, I wanted to contribute that Under the Twilight is actually everything I’d hoped both No More Film and After School Boy Blazer would be. NMF is brighter and more purple (though still pretty and one of my favorites), and ASBB is the opposite extreme as it falls into the “almost black” category you mentioned. I even tried that one as sort of an accent nail with black once just to see if you could tell the difference right next to true black, but you really couldn’t. And I love black polish, but I already own two. I’m psyched about Under the Twilight because I didn’t think that color would ever exist!

I predict myself having the same love/hate battle with Resort Fling as I did with Turquoise and Caicos last year (and probably this year again because I still feel the same). Adore the color when it’s finished, but both need 4-5 coats for me. I must do thinner coats than most people.

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